Web 2.0 != a check

It’s great people are reading my blog before sending me a business plan. I’ve gotten a bunch of business plans, podcasts, etc, that I would have otherwise never had a shot at.  I’ve had over 50 ‘no harm, no foul’ meetings, participated in over 25 meetings with angels, start up groups, and various bar mitzvahs.  Love that blogging, it’s great for business.

So with that in mind and seeing that it hasn’t made Fred Wilson’s cliche of the week yet, here goes.

Don’t put “Web 2.0” in your presentation. Don’t quote me Tim O’Reilly, Bill O’Reilly, or anybody else talking about Web 2.0.  Don’t tell me in your email that you are on the leading edge of Web 2.0.

First these kind words: Tim O’Reilly is my hero. I worship the ground he walks on. I met Tim many, many years ago while doing my thing for Microsoft. Tim’s a very polite person. He asked about me. I mentioned that I had daughters. He said, get em horses, trust me, keeps them out of trouble. The money you spend now, will be saved against what you will be spending rolling through the teenage years.  I did and my daughters are amazing individuals. Between the girls having a brilliant mother and Microsoft stock options feeding the horses, I made it as a Dad, whew! So, Tim can do no wrong in my book.

Having said that, enough already with this Web 2.0 nonsense. We are doing the same thing we always do when “new” has “newer” come along. We hype the snot out of it and crap all over the ‘old stuff’.

The modern version of a Tired vs. Wired chart is currently floating around the web. This attempt to categorize stuff as Web 1.0 vs. 2.0. is, well, interesting.

For example: Content Management is Web 1.0 while Wikis are Web 2.0. Gimmie a break. Wikis ARE content management dressed up a web service on top of a database engine that tracks content and, wait for it, changes to that content, in other words: Content management. 

Do not get caught up in all this stuff. Right now, if you are working on solving a problem and looking to make money from the solution,  focus on the customer and take advantage of what your ancestors, those Web 1.0 old farts, have done for you.

Lots of Bandwidth = You can do it on the web as a service

Lots of Storage = You can give people rich content because they can get it quickly

Lots of users = “Everybody” can get to an Internet connection

Free is good = You can do a lot, code a lot, market a lot, without spending tons of money (This is bad for my profession. We need VC 2.0)

So, while I’d wash Tim’s car with a toothbrush (or muck out the O’Reilly barn), I’m not going to Web 2.0 conferences and am going to take a very dim view of start ups who think a Web 2.0 badge is a waiver for actually doing the fundamentals of a business, those being: Solving a problem with a solution customers love and will pay for. Don’t look for the buzz words to get you into the game or get you a check.

Note: The “!=” thing is geek speak for does not equal. Somebody else used it recently, I saw Dr. Scoble explain it and I can’t remember the original place where I first saw it, so I apologize in advance to that person.

Comments

[Danish Munir]

Hey. my question might be a bit off topic, but I really wanna know this: how did getting your daughters horses, help in their upbringing? I honestly wanna know if there is any truth to this and if yes, how? I would appreciate it if you could share the wisdome behind that.

[Scott Burkett]

Rick - amen brother! Great post.

I often get questions about Web 2.0 as well, so I put together a list of them, if you want a cheap laugh. :)

http://www.scottburkett.com/index.php/archives/235

Cheers.
Scott